It’s a twenty minute walk from where I live in Butetown to St Paul’s Church in Grangetown to where I’m heading. It takes a little longer to reach there today.
Near the door of St Mary’s Church someone has discarded a needle during the night. I return to the house for the sharps box which is getting pretty full now. I dispose the needle safely.
A minute later, and I pass the entranceway to Ty Gobaith. For weeks, during the evening time, numbers of people gather there, and inject there. They have been dispersed by the decisions made elsewhere. The problem passed on, pushed closer to where people live. Closer to schools.
Here, I count five needles. I wonder if I have time to return to the house to collect the sharps box again. I check my watch. I’ll be late.
A street cleaner is collecting rubbish. I point out the needles. He doesn’t collect needles, he tells me, although the company he works for does.
Luckily, I have the Company’s contact details. Send an email with photographs. Hope they will be able to attend soon.
The school run has just finished. I move on.
As I walk on, I see more needles scattered at the side of the pavement on Callaghan Square. I take another photograph, send another email.
This is not uncommon. Sometimes, here, we collect needles on a daily basis. Sometimes, it may be just the one needle. Sometimes, half a dozen.
In a five minute walk from the house I have counted eight.
On my return, the needles outside Ty Gobaith have been collected although one was missed. I return home for the sharps box.
Recently, in Glasgow, a safe drugs consumption facility was opened. (You can read about it here). It would be against the law to initiate one here in Wales, in Cardiff. And yet such facilities have emerged across Europe, North America and Australia. They reduce harm for the user, whose life may be fairly chaotic, and provide a supportive environment which perhaps may eventually lead to them accepting the help they need.
They also reduce drugs litter, and create safer communities, prevent a child stepping over a needle, or walking past someone injecting in broad daylight, or even worse receive an injury from a sharp.
I’m not suggesting that such a facility in Cardiff would solve all the problems. I’m suggesting, that a serious and public conversation around the possibilities of safe drug consumption facilities needs to happen, a conversation which should involve all concerned parties including the community, and be driven by the communities affected.
When the first facility opened in Barcelona, there was a fourfold reduction in drugs litter.
It’s time to start talking in a different way about drugs and homelessness. It’s time to begin to make new decisions, to look compassionately on the needs of all affected (individuals and whole communities) and to move towards making a bold decision.
Who wants to talk?
South Cardiff Ministry Area 